Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is the word: maladjusted. ....Of course we all want to live the well-adjusted life to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But as I move towards my conclusion, I would like to say to you today, in a very honest manner, that there are some things in our society and somethings in our world of which I'm proud to be maladjusted. And I call upon all men of goodwill to be maladjusted to these things until the Good Society is realized. I must honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to racial segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few, and leave millions of God's children smothering in an air-tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.

I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, to self-defeating effects of physical violence. But in a day when sputniks and explorers are dashing through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war. It is no longer the choice between violence and nonviolence. It is either non-violence or nonexistence, and the alternative to disarmament. The alternative to absolute suspension of nuclear tests. The alternative to strengthening the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole world may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation. This is why I welcome the recent test-ban treaty.

In other words, I'm about convinced now that there is need for a new organization in our world. The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment...



Martin Luther King, Jr.
December 18, 1963
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